Lawyers representing Slobodan Milosevic have asked the U.N. war crimes tribunal to issue a subpoena to force former U.S. President Bill Clinton to testify at his trial, documents showed on Tuesday."In his position as former president of the United States, Mr Clinton had a continuous role and unique knowledge of events relevant to the indictment," the lawyers said in a written request filed last week but only made public on Tuesday.Lawyers Steven Kay and Gillian Higgins said his evidence was needed to make sure the trial was "informed and fair".They said Milosevic had written a personal letter to Clinton asking him to testify but had not received a response. They added the U.S. embassy in The Hague had written to them last year explaining the opposition of the U.S. government to the request.... http://www.cnn.com

Businesses need to plan on having 40 percent of their workforces out if a flu pandemic strikes and need to start rewarding employees for staying home when they are sick, U.S. government advisers told a conference on Tuesday. The H5N1 avian influenza virus will almost certainly spread to birds in the United States eventually, and if it mutates into a form that easily infects people it will spread globally within weeks, they noted.If that happens, up to a third of people will be sickened by the virus in the space of a few weeks, another third will have to stay home to care for ill relatives or children kept out of school, and others will be afraid to come to work or may have trouble getting in if mass transit systems break down."We have seen, in the past several weeks, a remarkable acceleration of the pandemic in birds," Dr. Rajiv Venkayya, special assistant for biodefense to President George W. Bush, told the conference....http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060228/ts_nm/birdflu_usa_dc

The state cannot seek punitive damages against three former lead paint makers found liable for creating a public nuisance that has poisoned thousands of children, a superior court judge ruled Tuesday. The companies, Sherwin-Williams Co., NL Industries Inc. and Millennium Holdings LLC, still must pay to clean up the mess caused by lead paint, which could cost billions of dollars. But Tuesday's decision means a jury will not be allowed to tack on punitive damages along with cleanup costs. Last week, a jury decided the makers of lead paint created a public nuisance that continues to poison children. Superior Court Judge Michael Silverstein, reading a lengthy written ruling before a packed courtroom, said it was not necessary to punish the defendants with punitive damages they stopped putting lead in paint years ago. ...http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/28/national/main1355151.shtml?CMP=OTC-RSSFeed&source=RSS&attr=U.S._1355151

Former Playmate of the Year Anna Nicole Smith got her U.S. Supreme Court hearing on Tuesday, when her lawyer argued she should collect millions of dollars she claims her late Texas oil tycoon husband had promised her. At one point during the hour-long arguments, the 38-year old blond widow, dressed in black and sitting in the spectator section, became emotional and started crying, a witness and her lawyer said.Smith, who formerly also has hosted her own reality television show, did not talk to the crush of reporters, photographers and camera crews when she entered and left the Supreme Court building.The issue before the justices in the long-running legal battle is to review when federal courts can hear claims that are also involved in state probate hearings.The justices seemed receptive to arguments by Smith's lawyer that federal courts have jurisdiction to consider her claims....http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060228/ts_nm/court_people_smith_dc

More than a third of U.S. soldiers received psychological counseling soon after returning from Iraq, according to a Pentagon study that could add fodder to a budget battle in Congress over veterans' health care.The researchers did not find the results surprising, because the military has a new mental health screening program for returning soldiers and is encouraging them to get help early to prevent serious problems later, said study co-author Dr. Charles Hoge, a colonel at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.Because of the new screening program, the findings cannot be compared to those from previous wars, Hoge said."There are psychological consequences of war and we want to address those up front," Hoge said. "The hope is we won't have as high rates of mental health consequences as we've seen in prior wars."...http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-02-28-soldiers-counseling_x.htm?csp=34

Several U.S. Supreme Court justices expressed skepticism about Vermont's limits on campaign contributions and spending, the strictest in the nation. The justices heard a free-speech challenge to a 1997 Vermont law that limits contributions to as little as $200 per election cycle for each candidate, and caps spending as low as $2,000 for state representative candidates. The state says the limits are needed to prevent corruption and keep candidates from having to spend a large amount of their time on fund raising. The case offers the justices in Washington a chance to revise their landmark 1976 Buckley v. Valeo decision, which allowed federal limits on campaign contributions while throwing out the law's cap on spending. In that decision, the court said spending limits would reduce the amount of political expression. ...http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=a8K0VUUH6WpM&refer=home